On a cold but sunny spring day we piled into the car and drove up to Bruce’s Mills Conservation Area, one of the sites for the Sugarbush Maple Syrup Festival on the outskirts of Toronto. When we were tykes, our mom would stuff us into the car and take us to the springtime maple syrup […]
The Year in Books: April with Consider the Fork by Bee Wilson
Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat by Bee Wilson is a book about the history of cooking and cooking utensils, from roasting spits and fireplaces to mortars and pestles and chopsticks. It explores the way our kitchen tools influence what we eat, how we eat, and what we feel about what […]
Caribbean Buttered Rum Cake
Tomiko and Donatello used to work on cruise ships for several years, and I flew down to visit them in the Caribbean once. In the Cayman Islands I tried some delicious Rum Cake, which was sold in boxes piled high in almost every store. This recipe is the closest thing to that buttery Tortuga Rum Cake. It’s […]
Green Beans and Tempeh with XO Sauce
This tempeh recipe is a riff on a dish that we love at our favourite Chinese restaurant here in Toronto. The beans in that case are mixed with a bit of ground pork, but here I replaced it with some tempeh. Originating in Hong Kong, XO Sauce is a Chinese sauce made from dried seafood, including shrimp, […]
Our Parents’ Renovation: Before Bathroom
This bathroom is about 20 years old, when our parents renovated their Edwardian triplex into a duplex. It was the one and only bathroom for our family until we moved to Saudi Arabia. Hence, the low counter (for three kids) and double sinks. The blue paint job is from 2004, when we finally moved back to […]